Perkins’ proposal would be a huge and expensive change for Shreveporters. As things now stand, these costs, except for an optional “recycling fee” of $2.50 included on our water bill, paid out of the regular city budget.

Adding fuel to the fire, Perkins summarily dumped Public Works Director Mike Woods in the process of coming up with the proposed new tax … in a city already infamous for, and severely harmed by, its high taxes.

According to the Shreveport Times, Woods said:

“Trash pick-up originally fell behind the first week of December when 15 workers stayed home. This led into the holidays when pickups were suspended for Christmas and New Year’s. As a result, crews fell even further behind. All of this is exacerbated by understaffing.” …

“I mean, everything was fine until he got here. Everyone was happy. We were running behind on garbage, but we managed to catch-up. That (sic) wasn’t anything anybody could do about it. It was just a matter of not having any employees to do it.”

When faced with the same temptation, former Mayor Ollie Tyler tried a much lower fee on the then-City Council, only for it to be slapped down by the body in a hurry. Instead, every-week recycling collection was changed to every other week with no fee increase.

Perkins has NO credibility on the issue, of course, owing to the fact that he pays no City of Shreveport property tax – at the top of such taxes in Louisiana and many other places in the region.

Perkins has never owned a home in Shreveport, but owns one in Savannah, Georgia. Records there show he pays that property tax.

Perkins is reported to be calling the apparently intended tax a “clean-city fee,” as if this huge increase in the cost of living here will somehow actually clean-up the city’s epic litter load.

Without saying he will oppose the attempted tax, City Councilman James Flurry tells KTBS that he doesn’t think low income Shreveporters can afford such a tax.

In fact, of course, no one in Shreveport should see such a sudden and unnecessary tax as anything but exactly what many of us fully expect from Perkins … tax, tax, tax and spend, spend, spend.